Fandom: SkinsSubject: Franlo, A.K.A. Alo Creevey/Franky Fitzgerald. Because I ship it. Hard. Title: Close Your Eyes and I'll Close MineWarnings: None. Notes: I ship almost every ship imaginable in Skins Gen 3, so unlike a lot of fans, there's a big chance I won't be disappointed with the ships the writers choose to make canon in Series 6. But out of every couple on the show, whether canon or fanon, the one I ship above all others, my honest-to-God OTP, is Alo/Franky. They are one of the least shipped as far as I am aware. Hell, Mini and Alo get more love. *feels bitter, shrugs it off* I think Alo and Franky would be adorable together. Therefore, I made this fan mix. I am proud of it.Also, this is, very predictably, the first and only Alo/Franky fan mix online. I searched. In addition, it might actually be the first and only fanwork of them in existence. IN EXISTENCE. (A simple search says "yes." Deeper digging would probably agree, but who knows? Maybe on some tiny forum in buttfuck nowhere, something else for A/F really has been posted. But I wouldn't bet on it.) Why do I only make fanmixes for under-loved pairings? WHY?Anyway, on to the mix.

01. ok go - before the earth was round(✖)Everything was war, but everyone knew loveAnd every contradiction was true

02. голландия - дом №2 (gollandiya — dom #2) (✖)(I don't speak Russian, so I couldn't choose lyrics from this one.If you DO, you can read them HERE at the band's website.

03. the beatles - good night(✖)Dream sweet dreams for me, dream sweet dreams for you

04. nina simone - tomorrow is my turn(✖)Tomorrow is my turn, when my luck is returningAll these years I've been learning to save fingers from burningTomorrow is my turn to receive without giving,Make life worth living, now it's my life I'm livingAnd my only concern for tomorrow is my turn

05. warrant - train, train(✖)Well, train, trainLord, take me on out of this townThat woman I'm in love withShe's got to go

06. kim lenz & the jaguars - zombie for your love(✖)Have you I must, you know I'm just a zombie for your love!I crave your flesh, you know I'm just aZombie for your love

07. neutral milk hotel - ghost(✖)I know that she will live for everShe won't ever dieShe goes, and now she knows she'll never be afraid

ETA: Apparently the entire mix got reposted to a Russian Skins fansite (skinstv.ru). I checked and AFAIK it's one of just a few fanmixes reposted to the site. I just find this really odd. The site sources back to this blog's main page, but still. I find this really weird. Their post [HERE] was made just two days after I posted this here.IDK. I just find it odd. I was just looking for Skins fansites to get photos from (for graphics) when I found the page. Über odd. :/ETA 2: Alo/Franky's official ship name is now "Franlo".

Ah, I see. Yeah, that does make sense about Rich and Mini. Actually, when I had to think of them together in one scene, that was the first that came to mind.(How do you feel about his reluctance to believe her apology in 5x04 Liv? That might work into the ship. Although I kind of had the same reaction as Rich did while watching. It seemed so fake to me, more of a "let's all pretend we like each other and that nothing bad ever went on!" The same vibe came from her refusal to acknowledge in the kitchen that she was still angry with Liv. It was Mini's actions and her better treatment of everyone later on that I believed, not that pseudopology.)

I agree about the Minky passion. I like the ship, but am really put off by the majority of the shippers that I see. Their raging Matty-hate turns me off so bad. When I first got into fandom, I went along with the "Minky = <3, Matty = troll lol kill Matty" mentality. Then I liked Matty in Liv's episode and later ones and tried to remember why I had hated him. All I could come back to was that it was a mob mentality. So yeah. Minky could be really wonderful, but the shippers who want it to be Naomily V.2? No.

Again, thanks so much for introducing me to this ship. Oh and kudos for the use of Nina Simone.Oh my gosh. If anything, I want to thank you for shipping it. It's nice not to be alone in the Alo/Franky love.

I wasn't entirely sold on Mini's character at that point and was kind of weirded out when everyone in fandom was all *~FLAWLESS HBIC~* 1!11!2.I think they related to her on more of a surface level, and were building her up into something that, from the amount of development she'd got at that time (and has had so far), we had (and have) no way of knowing whether she is or not. They build/t up the gay aspect, pretty much declaring it canon that Mini is gay...and that confused me. We have no way of knowing until this is verified in canon, yeah? (I figure it's really likely that she is, though. :/)

I think of all the guys, he's the one most likely to see through the BS facade she puts up and make her act like a normal human being, which is why even a friendship between them would be interesting.I'm starting to like the idea of Rich and Mini now. I even found a few mini-fics/GIF-companion-drabbles on someone's blog. I'm not crazy about Mini's characterization there, but the graphics are really nice. :P

It seems that Gen 3 fandom has decided that Matty and Liv should be the most disliked characters this series, which isn't fair but at the same time not surprising.I'm so glad I'm not the only one to notice it. It's frystrating and they definitely don't deserve it. Can I point out that a lot of their hate is coming from fans who only want angsty-yet-adorable white lesbians as replacement for/clones of their own stereotyped perception of Naomily? Which Matty and Liv are the antithesis of, really. And it's just awful, gross and freaking ridiculous in a lot of ways. (Though I will add that Liv's got more love since S5 ended, with much of the hate switching onto Matty. :( )

The ... wars are endless and tiresome and can easily drive people away from fandom.Ugh, yes. I haven't exactly been driven away, though — far from it; I spend a lot of time in fandom, and if anything, I have this attitude of, "No! I'm not going to let the wank ruin fandom for me!" But it can get pretty fucking tiresome, I agree. I just try to put my blinders on and ignore it, rather than ditching fan sites on here and tumblr altogether.

None of the characters are deserving of the hate imo, not even the poorly developed ones.I agree with this completely. I don't know, they just feel kind of like a family to me (maybe that sounds weird), and I love it when that happens with fiction. I don't always get this level of attachment to characters, either.I see the writers get a lot of hate for their writing quality (among other things), but I think it's a merit to what they can do and have done that Gen 3 has really got this much of a hold on not just me but plenty of others. Gen 3 haters and refusers-to-watch are missing out.I think once I've watched it I will probably love the entire series, not just one gen exclusively. Ugh. Being the first gen I've watched, though, the third one will always be really special to me.)

I think once more people see this mix, more people will be open to the idea of Alo/Franky. Who knows? Maybe you could start a trend?Geez, I hope so. Somehow I don't think it'll catch on. But I can hope that it will! :D

iamshunpike on September 6th, 2011 04:31 pm (UTC)Part 1. Yeah, it was over character limit.

...I don't know if you've noticed this. But Skins fandom tends to be quite shallow. A lot of the criticism that Gen 3 got in the beginning was that they were all ~uglier than previous gens. That opinion has obviously changed over time, but I still see the odd comment every now and again, which is upsetting because you know that the cast can see all of it, and it probably makes them feel bad.I have noticed it. I feel like if Effy had had a look that was considered, IDK, "traditionally" ugly, then a lot of her stans might not have been interested in the first place. The same goes for other characters, yeah, but with her that's where I've noticed it.And I think that if I was an actor, I would avoid the fandom for the show/film I acted in LIKE HELLFIRE. I wouldn't want to know. Especially after coming from fandom roots, as I'd know what people online can be like at times.

I'd lost my enthusiasm for Naomily the same way I did Minky because of the fans. :PThat definitely happened for me with Minky...I started out LOVING it, then, really abruptly, stopped. AND THEN. THEN I regained the love. I just don't ship it AS hard as I did...nix on the whole "OTP, ENDGAME, I WILL DIE FOR LOVE OF COUNTRY MINKY, DOWN WITH MATTY AND ANYONE WHO GETS IN MY SHIP'S WAY" crud.

But watching 5x03 and 5x04, I can see why boys like her. ;)I know what you mean! ;B Yeah, me too. And I reallllllly didn't at first. It just happened over time.

It seems like the one ship most (not all) fans can agree on is Levancest. I like Matty/Nick well enough. I'm not sure I'd be a huge fan or write fic, but I do like them together. And I read your "Healing Our Wounds" fic a while back, but I guess I didn't comment? I think I wanted to give a proper review, but I was too tired, and I didn't want to just write "omg i loveddddd it xo lol" or something dumb like that. So I just read it again, yeah?I really enjoyed the fic. It definitely had a dark feeling throughout, but at the same time everything had a lightness about it, Nick's feeling that life would get better, things would improve, he'd be (and was already) happier.My favorite line was this:The men are still eying them as they sit there, toasting to each other like they’re celebrating something, which they are, only nobody else knows what and why. Nick knows they’ll never understand.It felt like reading a passage out of a book way older than the fic was. I guess it was that there was something timeless about it.

I think Franky could go a lot of directions when it comes to shipping, but that the writers are very, very set on Matty/Franky.

And as for Minky being fan service? Eh. I thought most of the shipping was what the fans interpreted and saw, not so much what the writers did.

When I first watched S5 I was almost entirely convinced she was a full-on closeted HOMO. Now, I'm sort of questioning it in a way? I feel like all the gay/gayest things they had Mini do (The predatory stuff, the bullying, in 5x01 that was full of tension on her part; 5x07's kiss; 5x08's crush-on-Franky and protecting-Franky moments; not to mention, all the unreciprocated affection towards Liv in the Skins Novel) were to show us, "Hey! Closeted lesbian here!" rather than specifically meant for Minky. The result was that people ship/ped Minky, but I feel like (whether or not they make Minky canon) Franky was the object of desire/affection/frustration/fascination/whatever-you'd-call-it that the writers chose just to show Mini's gayness. It could easily have been Liv (and was in the book), but wasn't in the show. So yeah.But whatever they do with Mini only the show will tell. :p

What I don't get about Franky is what they haven't told us: what GAVE her trust issues, issues with intimacy/sex? But Franky, Franky the girl, apart from those issues? I feel like I really relate to Franky, more than any other character. So I think we're on opposite sides of the fence here. I feel like I understand her more than I do the others, in a way. But yeah, she can be an enigma.

I've been fearing that Series 6 will be dark as fuck, not to mention badly-handled like I've heard Series 4 was. HOWEVER! However, I can't help but think that they made S5 light for a reason. People needed to recover from how (apparently?) heavy and shocking Series 4 was. Series 5 was lighter, yeah? I'm hoping that no matter how dark and chaotic S6 gets, it's nothing like what I've heard S4 was like from tons of fans (and nothing like what it actually was like).

iamshunpike on September 6th, 2011 02:57 pm (UTC)Re: I leave long fandom comments. That's how it is. :B

You've be surprised at how quickly word spreads about ships, especially in this fandom.I'll look forward to that, then. Maybe I could make more for them (icons, fanfiction, even a mood theme?).

And I completely agree with you about the hate: even if you do dislike or genuinely hate a character, it's just a waste of time to focus on that hate and write about it on your blog, etc. And hate-fics. Oh man. (The other week I saw one for Harry Potter where Hermione fantasized about sex with pretty much every villain in the books as some sort of silent spite to Ron, who was painted as awful, stupid, etc. by the author. Openly called "Ron-bashing fic". Just...WHY? Why write a whole fic for the purpose of hating a character?)